[Gocamino] About Santiago, 1

[Rosina]

Hello you all, this is News about Santiago Number 1
(I may have to go back to work next week, so I’d better try to answer your questions and share what I learned in Santiago before I get too busy and/or forget a lot of things.)
 
New Foundation:  It appears that the anti-clerical political stance of the present government in Spain has created very serious financial burdens on the Cathedral’s functioning by disallowing gifts and donations made to it from qualifying for some sort of tax relief.  Because of this, and to respond to the incredible demands made on the Archbishopric by the tremendous resurgence of the Camino, a new Foundation has been established, outside of the Cathedral, to which contributions made be made that will receive tax benefits. This foundation,  called “Ad Sanctum Iacobum Peregrinatio” has already been established and will take up more than half of the Camino-related administrative and overseeing functions heretofore handled by the Cathedral.
Among the innovations begun by the Foundation is the establishment of a chain of albergues that will be housed in presently unoccupied old convents, monasteries and such throughout the Camino.  These albergues will be “Causa Pietatis” oriented and will hold morning services (“matins”) and evening services (“vespers”) for pilgrims conducted by a priest.
(As the recorded data show, more than 90% of pilgrims undertake the pilgrimage with a purely religious or a cultural/religious motive.   There have been complaints galore from many such pilgrims about their perception that far too many people view the Camino either as an “athletic trek” or a “cheap Holiday”.  The purpose on the part of the Foundation is to return the Camino to its original purpose, particularly for those pilgrims who view it as possessing a spiritual/religious connotation.)  
Contributions to the new Foundation will receive a tax benefit, but with the Caveat, for us,  that while USA citizens and residents can deduct contributions made to any recognized church for income tax purposes, this provision of the IRS Code applies only to contributions made to qualifying churches in the USA, and not to churches or religious organizations in other countries.
Because the unemployment rate in Spain among its young people is staggering (more than 20%), however reluctantly the National and many provincial government entities have agreed to  provide funds to hire young people in Spain to do most of Camino assistance  work that otherwise volunteers would have done, so it seems that the need for volunteers is much abated. (The Pilgrims’ office in Santiago is getting by on the barest of shoe strings and cannot provide for its volunteers anything other than the bread, cookies, milk and such munchies that they put up in the common room.  They do have coffeemakers there, a refrigerator and a microwave, but I got the feeling that the supplies provided by the office would be barely limited). Nevertheless, there were about 14 people there tending to pilgrims and the like.
Some of the people who come to the office are something else. When I was there a tall man, about 30 or so, with a very cute dog, was in there for more than an hour claiming that because he  had walked all the way his feet were full of blisters and he needed to stay in Santiago four or five days to give his feet time to heal. However, he claimed, he didn’t have a single penny left and wanted the office to give him money for a hotel or put him up.  He argued and argued in German, English and a little Spanish  until he realized that they could not comply with his wishes and he left, with directions to go to the Monastery of Saint Francis where they might put him up.
I was told that this sort of thing happens a few times a day.  You may remember that a couple of years back someone hid upstairs and in the middle of the night he, or she, broke into the Pilgrims’ office breaking down the door, to steal the little can with the “donativos”  that contained, I was told, all of three Euros.
At the street floor of the building where the office is located (Casa del Dean), where there used to be a USC  (University of Santiago de Compostela) store there is now the Travel Agency sponsored by the Vatican for “world-wide pilgrims”. The agency is called “Peregrinos de Europa” and they provide the least expensive possible travel services to any pilgrimage destination from anywhere. The e-mail of the Santiago office is 
caminovillar at peregrinosdeeuropa.eu
Their office in Santiago looks Italian-elegant as befits an organization headquartered in Rome.   Well, when I was there someone had taken an axe to the two beautiful outside doors in an almost successful effort to break in.
 
And so it goes.  
 
The renovations to the Casa del Dean have begun. They will provide waiting areas, bathrooms, etc., so that pilgrims will not have to wait crammed up on the stairway or outside in the rain.
 
The Portico de Gloria is out of bounds and, methinks, will remain so for sometime while it is being restored. The upside of this situation is that it is possible to go up and see the figures of the Portico very close.  Groups of up to 10 people can make a reservation to go up to the scaffolds by going  to the little door smack in the center of the Obradoiro stairs.  Those who go must be physically fit and unafraid of heights. One climbs six meters up rickety scaffold stairways and must wear a miner’s hat.  What is absolutely amazing is the size of the figures; they are much larger than they seem when viewed from below, and the details are mesmerizing.  The three restorers there were working with little brushes smaller that those that we women use to shape our eyebrows, and under magnifying glasses!  So I should think that it will take years and years until they finish.  The tour is free, and it includes visiting the old Cathedral (a novelty to me) which is underneath the “new” one, and one emerges up to the new Cathedral through a hidden concrete stairway which I had no idea existed.
Wonders upon wonders.
 
I’ll continue later so that this message will go through.
 
Hugs!
 
 Rosina